VMDO Architects

Founded by a circuit-riding Methodist minister in 1886, Young Harris College is a private college located in the remarkable mountain setting of north Georgia. Young Harris was recently awarded four-year status as part of an ambitious plan to expand its academic offerings, more than double its student body, and emerge as a leading, regional liberal arts college. Young Harris is at the beginning of an unprecedented building program to support this anticipated growth.

The centerpiece of this new building program is the 125,000-square-foot Campus Center, designed to catapult the student experience at Young Harris College into the 21st century. Named for its donor, the O. Wayne Rollins Foundation, the Rollins Center is the signature facility at Young Harris College – the social and intellectual heart of campus. The 3.5-story glass, brick, and stone building creates a new hub of bustling activity, uniting social and intellectual aspects of a thriving college campus while optimizing the surrounding mountain views and maximizing outdoor space with numerous porches for inspiration and renewal.

The Campus Center connects four distinct areas in a single, state-of-the-art structure: a 60,000 square-foot multi-purpose student center, an expanded dining hall boasting a wide variety of food stations, a 350-seat, versatile banquet facility, and a 40,000-square-foot modern library.

The combination of these program elements into one seamless whole creates a dynamic and vibrant center for campus life. An innovative approach to the design included a forward-looking library concept—one that serves as a new model for small-group, experiential, problem-based learning. Additional buildings will follow in the next decade as part of a comprehensive master plan for the campus.